The Barmecha Siblings on Their Journey to Stardom

It’s the crack of dawn, but the Barmecha siblings Rajat, Ritu and Vicky are all set for the photo shoot. We had a whiff of their talent when we saw Rajat Barmecha in Udaan. Interestingly, his sister Ritu has been declared successful after her Allari Naresh starrer Aha Naa Pellanta burned up the box-office in the Telugu circuit. Brother Vicky will soon see his Ummeedein come alive on the silver screen. Childhood talesVicky, Ritu and Rajat Barmecha were born in Ladnun (Rajasthan), but were brought up in Delhi’s Yojna Vihar. Vicky is one-and-a-half years older than Ritu, while she’s a year-and-a-half older than Rajat.

Vicky reminisces, “We used to catch a rickshaw for school from a temple near our house. On days we didn’t want to go to the school, we’d spend half an hour there and come back and tell mom that the auto didn’t turn up.” He is quick to add, “Rajat was no less. Once we were playing cricket and he got out. But he refused to accept that and kept insisting, ‘I am not out. It’s my bat and only I will bat’. When I persisted, he hit me with the bat and ran away.”

The school of filmsWhile the three were first class students, they attribute their education to the Delhi Times. “We’d only read the movie section of Delhi Times. Papa would get angry and say, ‘You’ll have no future’. But their parents were actually cinema-friendly. “They would take us to watch films every Tuesday. I remember when we were watching Ajnabee, there was an intimate scene. I got uncomfortable but not my parents. We had an open atmosphere at home,” says Rajat. Ritu recalls how one day their father came to fetch the three from school saying there was some important work at home. “When we reached home, Papa switched on the TV and said, ‘There’s a good film on TV today. I want you all to watch it.” In fact, Vicky is so well-versed with the cinema of the 1990s and 2000s that friends call him ‘Vickypedia’. Vicky’s favourite actor is Amitabh Bachchan, while Rajat is a die-hard fan of both Big B and Salman Khan. Ritu, on the other hand, adores Madhuri Dixit.

Jab they separatedVicky and Ritu are introverts and are often mistaken as haughty. Rajat, in contrast talks 19 to the 900. They studied in Delhi’s DAV school but headed in different directions for higher studies. “Vicky bhaiya went to Bengaluru for his graduation. During that period, I and Ritu didi bonded.

City of DreamsSomewhere, all three nurtured tinsel dreams. While Ritu secretly noted her dreams of becoming an actress in her slam book, Rajat was the first to muster up courage and seek his parents’ permission to come to Mumbai. Vicky’s arrival in Mumbai, however, is very filmi. “I was in Delhi, working in the finance department of British Telecom. On my way to a trip to Bengaluru I came to Mumbai and stayed with Rajat for four days. His roommates kept telling me, ‘Bhaiya, you’re so good-looking; you should give films a shot too.’ Their words got stuck in my head. In July 2008, I came to Mumbai,” narrates Vicky. In 2009, Ritu won the Miss Beautiful Skin title in a beauty pageant and hoped her parents would allow her to go to Mumbai, but they refused. She requested her brothers to convince them. “When we were on a vacation, I secretly packed my stuff for Mumbai. There, Vicky bhaiya and Rajat convinced mom and dad and I came to Mumbai in 2010.”

Hum Saath Saath HainBy the time Vicky arrived, Rajat had signed Udaan, which released in 2010. “Rajat had the phone numbers of many co-ordinators. He started from scratch but his presence in the industry was an advantage for me. I accompanied him to auditions,” says Vicky. It was even easier for Ritu, but she did have her share of struggle. “Initially, Vicky bhaiya or I would accompany Ritu didi to auditions. I knew the type of people one finds here,” says Rajat. “Thanks to my brothers, I didn’t meet the wrong people. But Rajat was no star son, so my path was as difficult,” says Ritu.

Raining jobs Rajat, Ritu and Vicky were lucky that they landed jobs within three months of their arrival in Mumbai. Rajat started getting ad films. Vicky too began with ads, one with Rajat and the next with Ritu. “A production house needed an ‘elder brother’ kind of a guy for an ad. That’s how we did the Godrej Interio ad together.” By now, Vicky has done around 20 endorsements and Ritu 30.

Ritu went on to debut in the Telugu film Aha Naa Pellanta (Wow I’m Getting Married). After Rajat and Ritu, it was Vicky’s turn. Director Mohit Shrivastav’s Ummeedein was literally written for him. “I play a young man who comes to Mumbai from Hyderabad to make it big in the film industry,” says Vicky.

Praise and punchRajat, Ritu, and Vicky don’t shy away from criticising one another. “I was on the set of Udaan. After watching Rajat give his ‘natural’ shots I told him, ‘Yaar, I don’t think what you’re doing is correct.’ But later, when Rajat started getting awards, I realised this is what acting is all about,” says Ritu. Rajat adds, “After watching the rough cut of Udaan, Vicky bhaiya had said, ‘I’ll give you two-and-a-half or three stars’.” Like any brother, Rajat is protective about his sister. “We don’t want to see her in bold, intimate or kissing scenes or in revealing clothes.”

Born to entertain Rajat and Ritu prefer sensible entertainers, while Vicky likes realistic films. Ritu and Rajat list Vikramadiyta Motwane, Vishal Bhardwaj, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Habib Faisal and Karan Johar as their favourite directors. Vicky, however, has made a picture collage of 15 of his favourite directors, which adorns his room. Rajat, who has signed two big banner films, is confident that the Barmecha family will entertain film buffs for a long, long time.